I have Cheesecake on the Brain. Fortunately, it’s not a serious affliction as there are far worse things to have on the brain than cheesecake. But there is only one known cure and that is to make, and then to eat, copious amounts of low carb, gluten-free cheesecake. Cheesecake-like things, such as cheesecake popsicles, cheesecake ice cream and cheesecake bars are also acceptable forms of medication. This is still an experimental treatment, however, and the results are not guaranteed. There is a real danger that the cure will not assuage the symptoms, but instead exacerbate them, until one’s brain is so consumed with cheesecake, it’s all one can think or talk about. And this is when the real problem starts. Because who wants to spend time with someone who can talk about nothing but cheesecake? Well, I might. But I am strange like that.

This little current obsession with cheesecake was kicked off by my Strawberry Cheesecake Popsicles. When I was putting them together, I tossed in a little lemon juice and lemon zest to help cut the sometimes cloying sweetness of the strawberries. Before I even added the strawberries, I tasted my cheesecake-y mixture and it was so bright and fresh with the lemon, I was tempted to stop right there. But I had an abundance of berries to use up so I soldiered on with that and decided then and there that some sort of lemon-y treat was next in line for cheesecake-dom.

And then I made an enormous batch of my homemade cream cheese, which spurred my cheesecake obsession to new heights. If you haven’t tried homemade cream cheese yet, I urge you to do so. It’s easy and the sweet, fresh taste is vastly superior to store bought. It cries out to be slathered on anything and everything, and to be baked into delicious treats. It was the perfect vehicle for the bright flavour of lemon. I knew I didn’t want to make a full cheesecake, but instead to make some low carb Lemon Cheesecake Bars. Faster, easier, and less likely to sink and crack in the middle. Don’t get me wrong, I love a big, full slice of cheesecake. But sometimes you want cheesecake flavour in a smaller package. Cheesecake you can pick up with your hands.

These were melt in your mouth good. I decided on a shortbread-like crust and I stole it from my Peanut Butter Caramel Shortbread Bars. I added a touch more salt, and I underbaked the crust deliberately because I didn’t want it to get overly brown when the cheesecake part was baking. Quite honestly, the final results exceeded my expectations. And unfortunately, that has done nothing to cure my Cheesecake on the Brain. I think it may be a chronic disease. And I am okay with that.

Lemon desserts are one of my favorite things – when you add cheesecake, one of my other favorites, then it’s just not fair. Not only do these look delicious, but also dangerously easy to make – which means I could have them anytime. Which means I will have them ALL the time. Uh oh…. 😉

Yeah, I’ve had cheesecake on the brain for decades and I’ve just come to embrace my chronic illness for what it is. While I can’t say I ever get tired of full on cheesecake, I wouldn’t turn this stuff down. I love citrus….anything. I think your bars would go fantastic with my morning coffee.

I made these today. YUM!! So delicious. I had to use what I had on hand so they were key lime rather than lemon. I used powdered erythritol, liquid sucralose and left out the xanthan gum. This recipe is a keeper. Thanks so much!

These look soooo good, Carolyn. I haven’t made a cheesecake (or anything remotely close) in so long. I’d love to try these soon. Girl, how do you bake all these delicious desserts and not gain weight. I just can’t eat sweets very often or I do just that.

Your recipe sounds yummy. Thank you for using real butter, heavy cream & cream cheese. The low-fat substitutes are not as healthy & low-fat foods do not “satisfy” the appetite. I’d never sub cottage cheese for cream cheese. I do use stevia, as it’s natural, but I don’t use any artificial sweeteners including erythritol or Swerve. How much real sugar would I substitute for the Swerve? Is it a 1-for-1 replacement?

FYI, erythritol is not an artificial sweetener. It’s a naturally occurring substance found in fruits and fermented foods. But if you’d prefer to use sugar, use it in the same amount and sweeten the rest with Stevia.

Thanks for another outstanding recipe!
This really isn’t about the recipe but about the formatting you use. I am wondering if you changed it in the past several weeks?

I copy your recipes from the website and put into an office document and save to a folder in dropbox, so I can access it from my phone, iPad, computer, etc., when I travel, as I don’t always have ability to go online.

Up until a few weeks ago it copied and pasted perfectly. Now however all the text runs together with no spacing. In other words there is no new line for each ingredient or directions. I need to go through and re-do it so I can read it. I am happy to do this to get the recipe, but I am wondering if you did change the way you encode it if it would be possible to return to the prior method?

Or maybe it’s my computer, it recently updated to the newest OXS 10.8 and I have had some problems with other programs.

Hi there. I think it may actually be a Ziplist coding thing that they’ve updated to help deter people from “stealing” recipes. You should also get a little note at the bottom with the link to the recipe and a “read more at…”. Copyright is a HUGE issue online and many many times, people find their entire recipe posted on another blog/website with no credit given. So I am guessing that’s an update they did on their end.
I know it makes it more complicated for you and I am sorry. I have no issues with you saving recipes into word docs at home, but the Ziplist format (which has its own recipe saving tool, by the way) is useful for me and makes it easy for people who want to save recipes in one place online. In fact, I have requests to go back and do all my old recipes through Ziplist! If I could ever find the time…

That’s 5g of “carbs” that have zero effect on one’s blood sugar. The FDA requires that they are labeled as carbs, but as they produce no insulin response, they don’t count as carbs. May I suggest you check out the Swerve website for more information?

I am wondering what brand of granulated erythritol you would recommend. For some reason my taste bud rejected Swerve. All I find is powdered granulated erythritol on Amazon. thanks for the great recipes.

Oh. my. goodness! This was absolutely fantastic! I just had two servings…. I knew it would be good even before it baked as I tasted the beaters, then had to fight the urge to stick my face in the bowl to lick it clean! This is a brilliant recipe—and I’m so happy you shared!

Made these yesterday and we had a little piece for dessert last night – OMG – so very yummy!!! In my sugar eating days I loved lemon bars – totally satisfied that. Thanks for another winner recipe Carolyn!!!!

Hi Carolyn,
Really enjoying your website. Thanks so much for sharing all of your wonderful recipes with us. I made this recipe yesterday and they turned out so delicious. I always get my husband to rate things on a 1-5 scale. He gave them a “6” and wanted to know where I was hiding the rest of them! He also made the comment “these are sugar-free???”, he couldn’t believe how good they were for a sugar free/low carb/wheat free dessert! Keep up the great work, you have one of the best websites out there!

I should never tune in to your site. Love your cheery description of your food adventures and I want to make absolutely everything you develop. How you do it is a mystery to me with your have 3 young children. If I were ever down in the dumps I would hastily go to your web site and cheer myself in a flash.

I’ve made a lot of low carb things, but this is DEFINITELY the best I’ve tried. I used almond meal instead of flour and the only thing was that the crust was a little crumbly and it kind of fell apart. But I just sprinkled it on top, delicious. Alot of the things I’ve tried to make low carb have been failures (compared to this) but I wouldn’t hesitate to make this for my friends or family (non low-carbers). Great recipe

I wanted to let you know how much I/we enjoyed these! Love the texture and taste minus the following. The only problem my family and I seem to be having is with the “cooling” taste of the Swerve in recipes. I did use the powdered form of Swerve. Is there any way to lessen this effect? If we drink water with it our water taste sweet. Any ideas?

Hi Jeanette. Swerve usually has a lot less of the cooling effect than other erythritol based sweeteners. But some people are hyper-sensitive to it. I do not get any with it. Sounds like you might be one of those who is very sensitive.

Thank you Carolyn. I will continue to make these because they are just that good even with the cooling effect! I will also continue my search for a way to “soften” this reaction for my family. I have read a little about possibly adding polydextrose or inulin to help with this but know very little. Any thoughts? It would make this way of eating a bit easier during the holidays if I could find a sweetener that I/we could tolerate better.

I know it has been a while since there was any posting on this thread, but I just want to make a comment. My wife and I went low carb only about four months ago so only recently found this and other low carb sites. I hadn’t attempted any low carb desserts until I found your recipes and so for Christmas dinner, with the kids home, I made both the lemon cheesecake and the brownie cheesecake. Absolutely amazing. I have made cheesecake many times before going low carb and these are as good as anything I have done before.

By the by, I used the monk juice/stevia liquid for the liquid sweetener and it worked perfectly. I also splurged on the Swerve and from what I have read here it sounds like it is worth it.

I notice that you don’t use sucralose and am wondering if that is because you don’t like it or if it is because it actually is an artificial sweetener. I have seen that the paleo people often put it on the “don’t use” list because of this.

A lot of low carb is pretty easy but baking is tricky and you have many really great recipes (I have already made the brownie cheesecake twice and just ordered more swerve–you do use it up pretty quickly).

I don’t love sucralose, I find it has a chemical aftertaste and I personally don’t like how it is manufactured. But many of my recipes can be adapted to use it for at least some of the sweetening. I know that it’s much less expensive than other low carb sweeteners. So glad you liked both the cheesecakes, those are some of my faves!

Made these tongigjt and they were delicious! I’m always about a chocolate dessert so I wasn’t sure of these would satisfy my dessert obsession but they certainly did! It was hard to stop at eating just one, so I ate two. My husband ate four. Yeah these aren’t going to last long around here!

I made the lemon cheesecake bars last night. They are wonderful. I did sub Splenda for the Stevia. Having a hard time eating just one serving. I baked them for the suggested 30 minutes and the topping was set but I think I would like it just a smidge more done so next time I’ll add another 5 minutes. I have the most inexpensive gas oven and I can never trust that the temp is consistent. Thanks for all the wonderful recipes!!

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I am Carolyn, a writer, runner, mother and diabetic. I am also the evil mastermind behind this blog. I live for food. Join me in my experiments in creating delicious low carb, gluten free recipes. Read more

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Nutritional Disclaimer

Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program.
I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them.
I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.